Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday announced the removal of the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women — a move that could alter guidance for doctors as well as some insurance coverage.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday gave more details about why his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein went south, and told reporters he hasn’t been asked for a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon.
Trump continues to face questions on Epstein, and his administration’s handling of files related to the deceased financier and convicted sex offender accused of sex trafficking minors, even overseas during a working visit to Scotland.
In a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump’s golf property in Turnberry, Trump was pressed if a pardon for Maxwell was something he would consider and continued not to rule it out.
“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon,” Trump said. “But nobody’s approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news, that — that aspect of it. But right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
Maxwell, a longtime Epstein associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, sat down for two meetings last week with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. ABC News reported that sources say it was Maxwell who initiated the talks, and that she was granted limited immunity.
Blanche has not revealed what the Justice Department learned from the some nine-hour interview, only saying he would share additional information at the “appropriate time.” Maxwell’s attorney has said she was asked about 100 different people during their conversations.
Trump was also asked on Monday about parts of his relationship with Epstein, particularly their falling out.
“But for years, I wouldn’t talk to Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said, ‘don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘don’t ever do that again.’ He did it again. And I threw him out of the place persona non-grata.”
“I threw him out and that was it. I’m glad I did, if you want to know the truth,” Trump continued.
Trump did not offer any specifics, but as ABC News has previously reported, Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein accuser who died by suicide in April, had accused Maxwell of recruiting her while she was working as a locker-room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 and bringing her to Epstein’s home for a massage.
Trump went on to say he never went to Epstein’s island, and instead listed other high-profile individuals he claimed went to the island, including former President Bill Clinton. Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
“I never had the privilege of going to his island,” Trump said, “and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down, I didn’t want to go to his island.”
The president repeated his denial of a Wall Street Journal report that he allegedly sent Epstein a letter that included a drawing of a naked woman in 2003 for Epstein’s 50th birthday, which the Journal reported was included in a birthday book made for Epstein that contained letters from numerous Epstein associates.
Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and claims the letter does not exist. Dow Jones, the owner of the Journal, has said it has “full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting” and will defend against the lawsuit.
“I don’t do drawings. I’m not a drawing person,” Trump said on Monday. “I don’t do drawings. Sometimes you would say, would you draw a building? And I’ll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff. But I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings of women, that I can tell you.”
Meanwhile, House Democrats are requesting a copy of the alleged “birthday book” and an attorney who has represented hundreds of Epstein’s victims said that the estate was in possession of the book. ABC News has not confirmed the existence of the letter Trump allegedly sent to Epstein for the book.
Trump on Monday also continued to say, without providing evidence, that the controversy was a “hoax” perpetrated by his political enemies, including former President Joe Biden and former FBI Director James Comey.
“Well, I haven’t been overly interested in it,” Trump said of the Epstein files. “You know, it’s something, it’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion.”
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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Monday morning seeking a public commitment that the DOJ will not advocate for a pardon or commutation for Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation.
The letter comes after Blanche met with Maxwell privately for nine hours over two days last week, and after ABC News first reported that Maxwell was granted limited immunity during her meetings with Blanche.
In the letter, the senators call the “purpose and timing” of Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell “perplexing.”
“It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for the Deputy Attorney General to conduct such an interview, rather than line prosecutors who are familiar with the details of the case and can more readily determine if the witness is lying. In light of troves of corroborating evidence collected through multiple investigations, a federal jury conviction, and Ms. Maxwell’s history and willingness to lie under oath, as it relates to her dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, why would DOJ depart from long-standing precedent and now seek her cooperation?” Durbin and Whitehouse wrote.
The letter is a follow up to a letter Durbin wrote earlier this month to Attorney General Pam Bondi inquiring about alleged discrepancies in Bondi’s public comments about Epstein.
Blanche’s meeting, the senators allege, appears to be an effort to distract from Bondi’s past comments.
“It seems likely this meeting is another tactic to distract from DOJ’s failure to fulfill Attorney General Bondi’s commitment that the American people would see “the full Epstein files,” especially in light of credible reports that FBI officials were told to “flag” any Epstein files in which President Trump was mentioned and that Attorney General Bondi told the President that his name appeared in the files,” the senators wrote.
The lawmakers cite Maxwell’s “documented record of lying and her desire to secure early release” as cause or concern that she “may provide false information or selectively withhold information in return for a pardon or sentence commutation.”
When asked Monday if he would rule out a pardon for Maxwell, Trump responded by saying he has the power to give her a pardon but that he has not been asked about it yet.
“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it,” Trump said.
Trump told reporters on Friday that it was “inappropriate” to discuss a pardon then.
In addition to commitments to not advocate for a pardon or commutation for Maxwell, the senators also asked Blanche to commit that the DOJ will provide transparency to the victims and survivors of Epstein and Maxwell with respect to decisions the department makes regarding Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court, which seeks to overturn her conviction.
And they called for a release of the Epstein files.
“Rather than engaging in this elaborate ruse, DOJ should simply release the Epstein files, as Attorney General Bondi promised to do,” they write.
The senators posed a list of questions to Blanche, seeking an explanation for why Blanche believes Maxwell would now be truthful and asking what information the department believes she has that was not learned during her prosecution.
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(WASHINGTON) — The National Transportation Safety Board began its three days of investigative hearings on Wednesday into January’s midair collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter near Washington’s Reagan National Airport.
On Wednesday morning, the NTSB released thousands of pages of evidence from the crash and the subsequent investigation — including new video from the end of the runway showing the crash that killed 67 people.
Families of the victims of the crash sat in the audience of the hearing, some of whom wore pictures of their loved ones around their necks or on buttons. They broke down in tears as officials played the video with newly released surveillance footage of the incident.
The crash involved a regional jet that was flying from Wichita, Kansas, into Washington and collided with an Army helicopter on a training flight, killing all 64 passengers and crew on the jet and the three crew members in the helicopter.
During the three-day hearings, the NTSB is expected to question the Army, Federal Aviation Administration officials and others, and present its finding on the crash investigation. The NTSB will focus on a variety of topics in the hearings. The first day will focus on the helicopter’s altimeters and data systems as well as the design and use of the airspace around the airport.
“We’re going to focus on [air traffic control], so air traffic control and training, guidance, procedures, what was going on in the air that night, and again, that is within FAA’s purview,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Tuesday.
The NTSB will also discuss collision avoidance systems on aircraft as well as any safety data that was available and unavailable and how safety management systems can be implemented and improved.
Witnesses who are testifying at the hearings include personnel from the Army, American Airlines and the FAA.
On the eve of the investigative hearings, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation called “The Rotor Act,” which would require all aircraft, including military, to transmit ADSB location when flying — a system that allows aircraft to transmit its location to other aircraft as well as to air traffic controllers. All aircraft flying above 18,000 feet are required to have ADSB, but certain aircraft, including military aircraft, are exempt from transmitting ADSB location for security reasons.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the NTSB recommended to the FAA to require ADSB on all aircraft nearly two decades ago.
“ADSB, and I can’t stress this enough, is a game-changer, a game-changer when it comes to safety and will provide, as we said in 2008 immediate and substantial contribution to safety. This will save lives. This legislation will save lives,” Homendy said.
In its preliminary report, the NTSB said there is no indication the Black Hawk crew could tell it was on a collision course with Flight 5342, which was landing at the same time the helicopter was passing the end of the runway.
The helicopter crew might have had bad information from their altimeter, which measures height, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, the NTSB said in its preliminary report in February.
“We are looking at the possibility of there may be bad data,” Homendy said at the time.
The crew of the helicopter might not have heard a transmission from the tower that instructed them to go behind the airliner because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB preliminary report findings showed.
One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet. The NTSB said it was not prepared to say exactly how high the helicopter was at impact.
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